News that keeps your brain hydrated

Man, it’s a hot one. Like seven inches from the midday sun. I hear you report stories about Nevada and the words melt everyone…

We’ve had a busy week here at the Nevada Current. Allow me to recap:

Medicare & Medicaid celebrated their 61st birthday this week. But, as Michael Lyle made clear in his reporting: It’s not quite a happy birthday because rule changes brought on by Trump’s Big Beautiful Legislation are likely to devastate state budgets and put strain on people who rely on them for medications and health care.

Dana Gentry has a follow-up on the biggest news story out of Mesquite since I can remember. (Apologies to Mesquite.) The lawyer for the city’s former Mesquite police chief, who allegedly secretly recorded conversations in city hall, argued in court that the state’s privacy laws are antiquated in an age of smart phone ubiquity.

Also, if you read that paragraph and thought, “Wait a second. Wasn’t it Henderson City Council where someone recorded someone else and got in trouble with the law for it?” That happened too! Local government people love spying on other people, I guess. (Ask Reno’s mayor.)

Leilah Ortega spent time with a local group that is offering first aid and resources to the homeless in Las Vegas. It’s refreshing to read about people who reject the impulse to mentally check out and lean in to helping others at the community level.

That’s a lot on Southern Nevada, but we haven’t completely forgotten Northern Nevada. This week we also ran a fabulous commentary by Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos on Lake Tahoe and the push and pull between public safety or tourism development.

Jeniffer Solis explored the concept of “food as medicine,” including some fascinating data from Feeding America that found pairing food assistance with health care support led to a 13% drop in emergency room visits among Nevada participants.

Finally, I took a closer look at how Nevada State Sen. Carrie Buck, who would like to be promoted to U.S. Rep. Carrie Buck (R-Dina Titustown), has voted on housing policy. Turns out, she’s been on the opposing side of some notable bipartisan housing bills, including the big one championed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.

Michael and I also appeared on episodes of the podcast City Cast Las Vega this week. You can catch here and here, respectively. (The podcast also gave a shout to the Current’s beaver story from last week, which I adored so so much imma mention it whenever I can.)

If you didn’t catch the byline, the format change, or the millennial lyric drop opener, editor Hugh Jackson is out. I--deputy editor April Corbin Girnus, rhymes with furnace, BTW--will be filling in for the next week.

Let's don't forget about it…